MIAMI—If there was any thought to scrapping the ever-cautious plan that has been established when it comes to working point guard Ricky Rubio back into the Minnesota Timberwolves’ lineup, coach Rick Adelman quickly made it clear Tuesday that it wasn’t happening.

Rubio played Monday night in Orlando and was hoping that maybe he could suit up again to play against the Miami Heat here at American Airlines Arena. Alas, Adelman would hear nothing of it.

“I talked to him,” Adelman said before the Wolves' 103-92 loss. “I squelched that really quick.”

The Timberwolves have a lot invested in Rubio, of course, and as he works his way back from the surgery on his ACL and LCL he had last March, they’re extremely conscious about getting him back up to speed slowly and limiting the risk of further injury. As it stands, Rubio is operating on an 18-minute limit and will not be playing in the second night of back-to-backs—no matter how much he protests.

Rubio had a dazzling season debut on Saturday against the Dallas Mavericks, scoring eight points and passing out nine assists in 18 minutes. It was a different story on Monday, when he was scoreless (on three field-goal attempts) and had three turnovers to go with four assists in 16:28 of playing time.

“There’s just no sense in it,” Adelman said. “You saw him (Monday) night, he struggled, his second game back. His timing and everything else—there is just no sense to push him at this point, especially when we start having days off in between games. We’ll see how he reacts from there. I just don’t see what it would do for us to play him in back-to-backs right now.”

Obviously, the quicker Rubio returns, the quicker the Timberwolves can establish something close to a normal rotation, which is a luxury Adelman has not had this year. In addition to Rubio’s injury, the Timberwolves started the year without All-Star forward Kevin Love for 10 games, have gotten only five games from guard Brandon Roy, lost Chase Budinger to knee surgery after six games, and have been without Andrei Kirilenko, Nikola Pekovic and J.J. Barea for multiple games at various times. The latest blow has been a pair of hyperextended knees, one for Malcolm Lee and one for Josh Howard, further diminishing an already thin supply of healthy perimeter players.

Adelman was asked before the game who would play the role of fourth guard behind Luke Ridnour, Alexey Shved and Barea. “We don’t have a fourth guard,” Adelman said. “We really don’t. Andrei is going to have his hands full where he is at (guarding LeBron James). We’re going to have to rotate those three guys. That’s who we have. If we get in foul trouble or something like that, we’re going to have to make an adjustment. That’ll be on the fly.”

While the injuries are still a problem for the Timberwolves, getting Rubio healthy figures to solve a lot of problems. As a rookie last season, even as he struggled with his shooting (35.7 percent from the floor), he established himself as one of the league’s outstanding playmakers, averaging 8.2 assists in 34.2 minutes. The more important number was the winning percentage—the Timberwolves were 18-13 when Rubio started, 8-27 in all other games.

As it stands, the Timberwolves will just carry on, with Rubio in flux. It’s something they’ve dealt with all year.

“It’s been really tough,” Adelman said. “At one stage, we had our top six players out. But this is a great group to work with. They step up when the challenge is there, they don’t accept the fact that people are out, they just go out and work hard. We play hard every night, we compete every night. You’ve got to give them credit. We had to make a lot of adjustments.

“Now that we are getting people back, we are making adjustments again because you’re not used to playing with them. Like getting Ricky back, having Kevin out for 10 games, it’s been difficult, but I have no complaints about the way they approached it.”